Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
what are the fees for a name change in a deed of trust?
2 Answers from Attorneys
This could range from free on up to thousands of dollars, depending upon several factors. Most importantly, perhaps, what occasions the need to change a name in the deed of trust? Did the preparer (title company, attorney, lender, etc.) make a clerical mistake? If so, the correction ought to be made without charge, and the party responsible for the error should also pay the fees to re-record the deed of trust. If, however, as often happens, there were initially two borrower/owners and one is departing through a buy-out, divorce, etc., the preparer is not at fault, and the real issue is not correction of an error but removal of one of the borrowers as a named co-obligor. Some lenders willo allow this kind of loan modification fairly routinely, and will re-do the deed of trust for a fee sufficient to cover their clerical and legal costs, maybe $500 to a couple thousand depending u0on the loan amount and their happiness with the situation. Occasionally lenders won't let an initial co-borrower off the hook at any price (except refinancing the entire loan). I am answering based upon information from a relatively small number of clients who've been involved in re-writing loans due to various kinds of split-ups, business, marital or otherwise. We have a couple of attorneys here who have worked for lenders, and would have a lot more experience in this area that I have, and I hope you'll get a couple of other views in addition to mine.
What in the world is a name change on a deed of trust? Huh?